Mutu, have a bad name among the Portuguese; they are
said to he expert thieves, and the merchants sometimes
suffer from their adroitness while the goods are in transit
from one river to the other,. In general they are trained
eanoe-men, and man many of the canoes that ply thence
to Senna and Tette; their pay is small, and, not trusting
the traders, they must always have it before they start.
Africans being prone to assign plausible reasons for their
conduct, like white men in more enlightened lands, it is
possible they may he goodhumouredly giving their reason
for insisting on being invariably paid in advance in the
words of their favourite canoe-song, “ Uachingere, Uachingere
Kale,” “ You cheated me of o ld ;” or, “ Thou art slippery,
slippery truly.”
The Landeens or Zulus are lords of the right hank of the
Zambesi; and the Portuguese, by paying this fighting tribe a
pretty heavy annual tribute, practically admit this. Regularly
every year come the Zulus in force to Senna and Shupanga
for their accustomed tribute. The few wealthy merchants of
Senna groan under the burden, for it falls chiefly on them.
They submit to pay annually 200 pieces of cloth, of sixteen
yards each, besides beads and brass wire, knowing that
refusal involves war, which might end in the loss of all they
possess. The Zulus appear to keep as sharp a look-out on
the Senna and Shupanga people as ever landlord did on
tenant; the more they cultivate, the more tribute they
have to pay. On asking some of them why they did not
endeavour to raise certain highly profitable products, we were
answered, “ What’s the use of our cultivating any more than
we do ? the Landeens would only come down on us for more
tribute.”
In the forests of Shupanga the Mokundu-kundu tree